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Focus on • 13
partnership with our industrial end users to help them increase their own
competitiveness and remain strong in a difficult context.”
Impact to the bottom line
It is widely understood that a diverse product range carries with it cost
implications, not only in terms of logistics but also with respect to duties
to which imported tyres are subject.
Add to that fluctuating raw material and oil prices coupled with a weak
rand, and local tyre makers say they have little choice but to up tyre prices
in the first quarter of 2009.
Says Romano Daniels, General Manager Group Public Relations and General
Manager for Marketing, Bridgestone: “Tyre prices will be adjusted in the
first half of 2009 and on average, sell-in prices will go up by about 7%.”
Michelin Tyres confirmed they too would be upping their prices on 1
March by between 7-10% and further said prices could spiral yet again
during the course of the year if the rand remains weak.
When similarly questioned, Goodyear and Dunlop remained noncommittal,
claiming they were monitoring the situation and that a lot
would depend on currency movements and raw material costs.
Says Eddie Jordaan, General Manager: Sales and Marketing, Continental
Tyre: “Raw materials remain expensive. Of course the oil price and price
of natural rubber has reduced just as dramatically as it escalated in 2008,